Colorado’s drought-stricken Blue Mesa Reservoir near Gunnison is pictured May 30, 2021. (Chase Woodruff/Colorado Newsline)
The U.S. Department of the Interior announced this week that it has awarded a total of $849 million to repair and improve water infrastructure projects in eleven Western states.
The funding includes more than $32 million for water projects for four tribes in North Dakota:
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Five awards totaling more than $28 million to replace water pipes and other infrastructure on the Turtle Mountain Reservation
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Two awards totaling $2.5 million for water metering systems on the Fort Berthold Reservation
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Three awards totaling more than $1.1 million for additional pipe infrastructure and equipment replacement at a water treatment plant on the Spirit Lake Reservation
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A $500,000 award to replace water meter systems on the Standing Rock Reservation, which includes land in North Dakota and South Dakota
“North Dakota’s tribal nations need renewed water infrastructure to meet the vital needs of their communities,” Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., said in a statement. “These awards will modernize aging systems and protect the supply of clean, reliable water across the state.”
The funding also includes $118.3 million for 14 projects in the Colorado River Basin, where federal officials and state negotiators are weighing high-stakes decisions about the river’s future management before current operating guidelines expire in 2026.
The funding comes from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation’s Aging Infrastructure Account, which received a $3 billion boost under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law of 2021. The program will fund repairs and upgrades to existing water storage infrastructure, hydroelectric generation, and treatment plants.
“President Biden’s Investing in America agenda provides transformative means to secure clean, reliable water for families, farmers and tribes,” Laura Daniel-Davis, acting assistant secretary of the Department of the Interior, said in a statement. “As we work to address record droughts and changing climate conditions in the Colorado River Basin and across the West, these investments in our aging water infrastructure will maintain community water supplies and revitalize water supply systems.”
The Colorado River provides water to more than 40 million people in the Southwest and irrigates about 15% of U.S. farmland. A climate change-induced megadrought – the worst dry spell in the region at least 1200 years – has affected the watershed since 2000, causing water flows to drop significantly below the historical averages on which the state-by-state water allocations of the century-old Colorado River Compact are based.
A series of interim guidelines for managing the basin’s water amid ongoing shortages were issued by the Bureau of Reclamation in 2007, but they expire in 2026. Citing “ongoing conversations and collaborations with all stakeholders in the basin,” the agency last month issued a series of five alternative proposals that will be analyzed and could form the basis for a post-2026 plan – but finalizing new guidelines will now be the job of the new Trump administration.
The funding announced by the Biden administration this week includes $34 million for several projects related to the Blue Mesa Reservoir in Gunnison County, including a $32 million award for the replacement and renovation of equipment at the small hydroelectric power plant. Blue Mesa Dam.
Projects in other western states receiving funding include:
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$204 million to correct the impacts of land subsidence caused by the Delta-Mendota Canal in California’s Central Valley
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$143 million to reconfigure water infrastructure in the San Acacia Reach, a 60-mile stretch of the Rio Grande downstream from the San Acacia Diversion Dam south of Albuquerque, New Mexico
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Two awards totaling $28.3 million to replace and renovate equipment at the Glen Canyon Dam hydroelectric dam, which forms Lake Powell in northern Arizona
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$37.2 million to replace the St. Mary and Halls Coulee siphons in northern Montana, critical canal infrastructure that suffered a catastrophic failure earlier this year
A full list of the 77 newly funded projects is available at the Bureau of Reclamation website.
“Reclamation is committed to using these historic investments from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to revitalize our infrastructure for continued reliability and sustainability for the next generation,” said Roque Sánchez, deputy commissioner of the Bureau of Reclamation. “These facilities are essential to the West because they provide water to families, farms and tribal communities, while also producing hydropower and recreational opportunities for communities throughout the basin.”
The North Dakota Monitor contributed to this report.
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